Are LA Metro’s MicroTransit e-rides a benefit to single riders or too expensive?

With a cost to LA Metro of $42 every time a passenger boards one of its e-taxi vans, called Metro MicroTransit, the subsidy amounts to five times what the transit agency pays per ride on a typical fixed-route Metro bus.

While some question this as a waste of taxpayer dollars, including board member and Supervisor Janice Hahn who called it “a money loser” in July, the Metro board of directors voted 12-0 on Thursday to extend the program for another year — but with an eye to bringing down costs.

“It is providing a very valuable service to a lot of people,” said Hahn on Thursday. “But I don’t know how much more we can sustain it at over $40 a ride.”